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City of Cockburn 15 Dec 2020
What has created enough energy to power a household for a decade? Local food retailers participating in the City of Cockburn’s inaugural commercial food waste trial!

And the City is appealing for more local food retailers and restaurants to join the 22 already on board, with the trial extended until February 2021.

The trial is a partnership with Richgro, with the food waste being delivered for processing in its anaerobic digestion plant in Jandakot to help produce high-quality biofertiliser.

Excess electricity via methane capture from the plant, is then fed back into the grid.

City of Cockburn Waste Education Coordinator Clare Courtauld said if the successful results continued, it could lead to the establishment of a permanent food waste service.

So far, 21+ tonnes of food waste has been turned into fertiliser and electricity, with almost 41,000kg of greenhouse gas emissions captured to generate electricity.

“We want to double the weekly volume so we can use our bigger five tonne truck,” Ms Courtauld said.

“We are getting from 1-1.7 tonnes at the moment. So potentially some businesses could get more bins and we could get more businesses on board.”

Cockburn food waste-producing businesses that want to apply for the trial are provided with training, 120 or 240 litre food waste bins and compostable bin liners.   The City's waste team will monitor the trial and any contamination, to ensure delivery of a clean product to Richgro.

Current participants are:

One Harvest Fresh Cuts La Paleta and Pop Kulture My Delicious Cake and Decorating Jazzy’s Fish and Chips Second  Harvest Marmaris Café and Bakery B&B Fresh Bakers Delight Hamilton Hill Fins Seafood Cheesecake Shop Spearwood Dome North Coogee Grind Reaper Freo Kids Early Learning Coogee Continental Café Lighthouse Corner Store Montessori Stepping Stones Tony Ale's Regents Garden Aged Care Fortunate Palace Noodles 3230 Smoke and Grill Leapstart Aveling. To find out more about this trial or to apply, visit the City’s website opens in a new window. Applications will be assessed within five days.